Through the Grapevine: Call Jundy for a home delivery

Published 12:00 am, Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Picture this — it's a weekend night, you and some friends drive downtown to hit a few bars and before you know it, you've had too much to drink. The most obvious option is to call a taxi, but that means leaving your car in a public lot where anything can happen and taking another cab or finding a ride to pick up your car the next day. Now, you can Call Jundy, a service that safely transports you and your vehicle home.

“Two people show up to the customer. One person gets in (the customer's) car and the other car follows them to their location and gets them home to their driveway safely,” says Call Jundy president West Stone.

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The service started in October 2009, but Stone says business really picked up around Fiesta, with some customers reserving the service for events throughout the week.

The idea for Call Jundy was born one night when five friends who are now business partners went bar hopping.

“We're old friends,” Stone says. “We were out one night and all went to the same bar and started having fun and realized we were going to have to take cabs home and we didn't really want to leave our cars at the parking lot we were at, but we had to.”

That night, they went back to Stone's house and tried to figure out how to get their cars. They knew they were on to something.

The name, Call Jundy came from a friend who lived in Asia for several years.

“The rickshaw drivers are called Jundy,” Stone says. It became a joke when the friend called just about everyone Jundy.

Call Jundy's service costs $20 for pick up and $2 per mile, a small price to pay compared to the risk and thousands of dollars of fees and fines associated with a DWI. West says a lot of the clients are from the Stone Oak area traveling downtown, but the business also does its fair share of short runs downtown.

“Most people in a bar situation party within 5 miles of their house,” he says.

There are seven teams of drivers for the 24-hour service, and the business is hiring because of demand.

West encourages people to plan ahead, either scheduling the service or making a conscious decision to use their service before leaving the house.

“It's pretty much impossible to get someone who's been drinking fairly heavily to use the service,” West says, adding that they've often gotten positive responses after handing someone a flyer only to see them get into their car and drive home intoxicated moments later.

Reservations can be made by calling (210) 400-7756 or e-mailing reservations@

calljundy.com. More information is available on the company's website, calljundy .com.

West has worked in the restaurant and liquor business and says that also played a part in his reason for starting this company.

“I see the affects of overindulgence,” he says. “It's just about being safe and really having fun responsibly.”

You can e-mail Jennifer McInnis at jmcinnis@express-news.net or follow her on at twitter.com/mysa_food.